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Home , Eliseo Medina, Frontlash, Mayor of Los Angeles

Intense Political Mobilization: The County Federation of Labor by Larry Frank and Kent Wong

political regional allegiances.3 Once a stronghold The L.A. County Federation of Labor has of unionized manufacturing, about 500,000 light attracted national attention as a focal point of the manufacturing jobs still remain in L.A. County, new American labor movement. The emergence but in low wage non-union industries such as of Los Angeles as a union city has been an garment and food processing.4 impressive accomplishment, especially in light of its anti-union history. The growth of labor Until the 1980’s, Los Angeles was headquarters power in the political arena, the organizing of to a host of Fortune 500 companies and other new workers, the advancement of progressive major businesses. Their leaders were the public policy, and the forging of labor- oligarchy of the downtown business interests. community alliances, especially with immigrant These companies, such as Hughes, Rockwell, communities, have all contributed to Los Litton, the Atlantic Richfield Company, Security Angeles’s new labor power. Power building in Pacific Bank, Great Western Bank, even the Los Los Angeles combines the sophisticated political Angeles Times, have been subjected to mergers, work of the L.A. County Federation of Labor acquisitions, or closures. The heads of the and the economic development activism fostered remaining entertainment conglomerates, along by its allies. with the major developers of the region, have largely replaced the old oligarchy at the seats of The L.A. Context power.

With over ten million residents, Los Angeles Construction, business services, the hospitality County has the largest population of any county industry and retail have all been greatly impacted in the . Within its eight hundred by changes in the labor environment as union square miles sprawls the City of Los Angeles, workers were replaced with contracted workers the second largest city in the country with almost who were non-union and foreign born. four million residents. Another eighty-seven Immigrants are currently measured at 36.2 cities are incorporated throughout Los Angeles percent5 of the Los Angeles population, 800,000 County, and one million residents continue to of which are estimated to be undocumented.6 It live in unincorporated areas. The 2000 census is in this context that labor in Los Angeles has reports that 45 percent of the county population reasserted its power over the past ten years. is Latino, 31 percent Anglo other than Latino, 12 percent Asian, and 10 percent Black. 1 The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor A once dominant manufacturing base is now overshadowed by the regional influences of the The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor has entertainment industries, trade-related 345 affiliates representing over 800,000 businesses, and commercial development. members. Its largest affiliates are the 75,000 long Southern lost its four auto plants, eight term care (homecare and nursing home) workers steel mills and three tire plants largely due to the in SEIU 434B, the 45,000 county workers in national fiscal policies of the early 1980’s.2 Its SEIU 660, the 30,000 teachers in the AFT and powerful aerospace industry did not survive the NEA affiliated United Teachers of Los Angeles ending of the Cold War and the transfer of (UTLA), and the 28,000 members in the various Building Power in Los Angeles -1 - IATSE locals working in the film and television youth arm of the AFL-CIO) and the Social industry. Its Executive Board is composed of Democrats USA, and he embraced their politics. thirty-five members representing key union He was sometimes hostile to progressive forces leadership. It has a Committee on Political within the federation and to progressive Education (C.O.P.E.) with ninety-five voting community leaders. members and over 1300 delegates entitled to participate in its monthly delegates meeting. In addition to the endorsement process and the movement of political contributions, Jim Wood The County Federation also houses a labor focused much of his efforts on development in community services program which provides Los Angeles. Appointed by Mayor Bradley in support for striking and laid-off workers through 1980 to the Community Redevelopment Agency immediate crisis assistance, and major food (CRA), Jim Wood served as its chairman during distributions during holidays or at times of the years that the CRA rebuilt the entire skyline extreme need. Also housed at the County of Los Angeles with the tremendous resources Federation is the research unit, the Center for available through tax increment financing.10 The Regional Employment Strategies (CRES). With vast number of union construction jobs required political, mobilization, research, and for this endeavor strengthened the existing communications departments, the federation has leadership’s hand internally and externally. The a staff of nearly twenty. skyline of remains a testimony to the close relationship between the Tradition of Insider Politics County Federation and the Bradley administration. But this relationship ended when The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor the Bradley Administration ended. was chartered in 1959 when six local AFL central labor councils merged with the countywide CIO Leadership Shifts four years after the national merger between the AFL and the CIO. Under Sig Arywitz, labor The current L.A. Federation leadership came to played a progressive role in Los Angeles through power after the tragic death of Wood from cancer its support of Tom Bradley’s unsuccessful in 1996. Before he died Wood expressed his mayoral run in 1969 and successful follow-up in desire to have Miguel Contreras, who he had 1973.7 Arywitz died soon after Bradley’s hired as COPE director, succeed him11. This election in 1973, and his assistant, Bill Robertson vote, however, marked the L.A. County from the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Federation's first contested election pitting Employees Union, was elected.8 With Bradley Contreras against an Anglo local president. Bill firmly entrenched as mayor for the next twenty Robertson opposed Contreras and was quoted in years, the County Federation of Labor played an the as saying, “Contreras is insider political role. not qualified. Period.”12 In spite of opposition from the old guard who had worked with Hired in the early 1980's to direct the work of the Robertson and the racial overtones in the Committee on Political Education (COPE), Jim campaign opposing him, Contreras was elected in Wood replaced Robertson in 1994. Wood was a May 1996, becoming the first person of color to more dynamic and forceful leader than Robertson assume this position. though his politics were seen as more pragmatic or conservative, depending on the observer.9 Contreras‘s history and background were much Wood was formerly active in Frontlash (the different from Jim Wood’s. Contreras came from

Building Power in Los Angeles -2 - a family of farm workers in Dinuba, California, other unions. We’ve been getting great and learned organizing and movement politics assistance from the new Laborers’ during his years with the president—again, new leadership. We have of America. Along with a number of the UFW’s the new commitments from UNITE—again best organizers, Miguel Contreras had been hired there is new leadership in UNITE. And in 1977 by the Hotel Employees and Restaurant locally…[s]ince I’ve been here, we’ve also Employees. Contreras first came to Los Angeles had new leadership from the IATSE. So when he was assigned by the international as many different locals have new leadership in trustee to HERE Local 11, which was undergoing the past five years, and we’ve been able to a transformation of its own. bring them into labor’s structure.13

At HERE Local 11, Miguel Contreras worked Building Political Power closely with María Elena Durazo, who had been elected president in December 1986 as part of an In the past decade, the L.A. County Federation opposition slate to the old guard leadership. of Labor has been transformed from an entity Durazo became the first woman and first person most known for its “checkbook politics” to a of color to assume leadership of the local. Under cutting edge political machine able to elect its her leadership, HERE Local 11 adopted a much own leadership into state and local office and to more progressive agenda and militant tactics. She function as a key participant in regional politics. also helped empower a largely Latino immigrant The Old Model membership that had been disenfranchised by the old administration. Previously, demands to From its inception in 1959, the L.A. County translate the contracts into Spanish or to conduct Federation of Labor played a key role in membership meetings with the help of an financing many Democratic political campaigns. interpreter had fallen on deaf ears. In return for labor’s largesse, the County Federation was seen as a player in the political When asked to reflect on the County arena and was often at the table on key Federation’s successes since his election, Miguel development deals. But labor in Los Angeles offered the following: also paid a price over time for its close relationship with the powers in the Democratic Within a period of a few years, you had new Party and the Bradley administration, as it leadership of the AFL-CIO, new leadership became accustomed to operating largely without of SEIU, new leadership of HERE, as well as a field mobilization capacity. new leadership of the L.A. County Federation of Labor. In locals in Los Angeles, Early Get Out the Vote Work you had new leadership in a lot of unions too. You had the janitors organizing. You had the During the 1984 presidential election between homecare organizing. And so I think it’s a Ronald Reagan and Walter Mondale, neither labor natural evolution that’s happening, but we’ve nor the Democratic Party had any substantive been the convening point of these different field capacity in the precincts. In order to have operations. We have some great organizing some union field program building up to the commitments in Los Angeles from these November election, Jim Wood opened up the national unions. And we continue to grow. federation offices to ex-UFW organizers who For the longest time it was just SEIU and were working in the precincts while waging a HERE, but now we’ve expanded to include local initiative campaign. Always interested in Building Power in Los Angeles -3 - the role of technology in organizing, Jim Wood a Republican businessman named Richard attempted to develop some nascent field work Riordan, who ran on the platform, “Tough over the next six years, figuring out how to match Enough to Lead L.A.” computerized membership rolls with the voter files and conducting early and fitful labor-to-labor When the Democrats lost the mayoralty of Los campaign efforts14, but these efforts reportedly Angeles to a Republican, Bill Robertson stepped had more flash than substance. down as the County Federation’s secretary- treasurer, and Jim Wood was elected the The more substantive field operations in following year. This was the year of the anti- California at this time were being conducted by immigrant Proposition 187 on the November ex-UFW executive board member . 1994 statewide ballot. Not known as a risk Ganz had developed the “occasional voter” taker, Jim Wood agreed to support a rally against methodology while running a 1983 mayoral the measure in downtown Los Angeles even campaign in . This system, which took though many elected Democrats and political advantage of the recently computerized voter consultants feared a backlash to the “sea of rolls, is widely embraced today. It focuses brown faces” and the “inevitable Mexican turnout efforts on voters with intermittent voting flags.”16 No rally in Los Angeles had gathered patterns, which allows “Get Out the Vote” more than 60,000 since the 1940’s when labor (GOTV) work to more effectively target voters had turned out 100,000 for their labor marches. with a proven need to be encouraged to go to the But this time, labor, immigrant rights groups, and polls. The early and documented success of this the ethnic media turned out over 100,000 strategy in Senator Alan Cranston’s razor-thin demonstrators against Proposition 187 at Los 1986 victory over Republican challenger Ed Angeles City Hall. This experience coupled with Zschau and the ambitious 1988 Campaign for the Republican miscalculation in attacking both Participation and Democracy15 (which was led undocumented and documented immigrants, first by Ganz along with María Elena Durazo, Miguel in California and then as part of Newt Gingrich’s Contreras, and several of Los Angeles’s other national assault, helped forge a new and powerful progressive leaders) put resources back into field political alliance between labor and the Latino operations and trained the next generation of community in California, and specifically in Los union leaders on how to run political campaign Angeles. field efforts. This laid fertile ground for labor’s later electoral successes. Signs of Power -- Key Electoral Battles

In April 1992, civil unrest came to Los Angeles In the past decade a growing number of “labor in response to the acquittal of the LAPD officers champions,” including many union and who had been captured on videotape beating community activists, have been elected to local . The resulting riots took their toll and state office in L.A. County. The selected on Los Angeles’s existing Democratic power chronology below provides a sense of labor's structure. In the 1993 mayoral election, growing political influence. Democrats and labor united around city council member Mike Woo. However, on the heels of the 1994: A representative from the United Teachers fifty-two deaths and massive property losses of Los Angeles and a previous local president from the riots coupled with the huge loss of of the aerospace and defense contractor dollars at the American Federation of Government end of the Cold War, Los Angeles voters elected Employees wins the primary for an

Building Power in Los Angeles -4 - Assembly seat in . Latino Democratic assembly members had a long and strong strengthens the power of the Latino caucus history with progressives in the L.A. labor and they elect the first Latino speaker, Cruz movement and with María Elena Durazo in Bustamante. particular. The success of the Villaraigosa campaign against the old guard Latino 1999: In the city elections, Labor throws its leadership in Los Angeles was not lost on the weight behind , the now city County Federation. council president, for a seat. But possibly of greater importance, one 1996: Having lost the state assembly to of labor’s strongest allies, Antonio Republican control, the County Federation Villaraigosa, is elected to the speakership of endorsed three Democratic challengers and the state Assembly. This ushers in an era of ran field and independent mail programs in greater access for the L.A. County Federation these contested seats, winning all three races in local, state, and national politics. and helping to bring back Democratic control of the State Assembly. 2000: The County Federation of Labor focuses its now considerable electoral power behind a 1997: Labor endorses Gilbert Cedillo, the recent progressive challenger in a primary for the general manager of the largest county workers House of Representatives, endorsing state union, SEIU 660, for a special election senator Hilda Solis. Solis had led the Assembly seat representing the successful 1986 fight to increase the state overwhelmingly Latino downtown Los . She and the County Angeles. Behind by double digits, the Federation were challenging a long-standing campaign developed a targeted registration member of Congress, Marty Martinez, with a drive and then focused an independent walk relatively prolabor voting record. program and direct mail effort on occasionally Mainstream Democratic leaders across the voting and newly registered Latino voters. country were aghast that labor would violate The campaign literature explained that Gil their long-standing commitment not to Cedillo and labor were Los Angeles’s oppose Democratic leaders who had a champions against the immigrant-bashing moderately supportive voting record. Republicans and Governor Pete Wilson. Defending this move, Miguel Contreras Gilbert Cedillo, a virtual unknown before the explained to everyone on the campaign trail race, won a commanding victory17 against the that being a business Democrat was not good old guard’s better-known candidate who had enough, that unions needed “labor warriors” previously served on the L.A. School Board. and “labor champions.” Hilda Solis defeated Marty Martinez in the primary and went on 1998: Labor in California conducts an all out to become one of labor’s strongest allies in effort to defeat Proposition 226, an attempt Congress. In the fall, labor’s candidates won to ban the collection of COPE dollars without two of three additional contested individual annual written authorizations from Congressional races with Republicans. union members. Hundreds of staff were loaned from unions to the L.A. County 2002: Facing a Chamber of Commerce funded Federation.18 In the fall of 1998, labor and opponent in the primary, labor successfully the Democrats finally get back the elects Fabian Núñez, the former political governorship.19 The election of additional director of the L.A. County Federation, to

Building Power in Los Angeles -5 - the state Assembly. In a short period of time, he is catapulted to the powerful Many other labor electoral victories have not position of speaker. While Governor Gray been recounted here, such as labor’s role in Davis is reelected in November, labor in Los creating pro-labor council majorities in Long Angeles scores two impressive victories by in Beach and Inglewood, their work in the San defeating a bold “white flight” scheme by the Gabriel Valley in support of State Senator Gloria San Fernando Valley elite to secede from Los Romero and Assembly member Judy Chu, their Angeles and by passing a parcel tax for the close working relationship with progressive county’s public health care system (an leaders such as Assembly member Jackie initiative that needed and got a two-thirds Goldberg, and their amazing recent success vote of support). working with LAANE to defeat Wal-Mart’s attempt to force their way into Inglewood on the 2003: Two leaders with roots from within the heels of the long and painful grocery workers labor movement are elected to the Los strike in Southern California.21 Angeles City Council. Following a carefully constructed plan by the County Federation The campaigns delineated above capture the key of Labor, Antonio Villaraigosa beats an focused efforts by the County Federation, where incumbent council member, taking over 50 hundreds of thousands of dollars were raised and percent of the vote in the primary. spent in each effort, using a combination of Villaraigosa and the L.A. Federation inflicted financial support to candidate committees, the first primary loss by an incumbent in the internal labor-to-labor campaigns, and the history of Los Angeles’ nonpartisan primary development of one or more independent system. In the runoff elections Martin expenditure campaigns. These independent Ludlow, a former SEIU organizer and County expenditure campaigns are often constituency- Federation political director, goes from based towards immigrants, Latinos, Blacks, or thirteen points behind in the primary to a women. In these efforts, labor has dramatically commanding victory against an opponent expanded their technical abilities in targeting who generated considerable support from the voters, and the skills of their full-time precinct African American power structure. The win walkers, paid loss-timers primarily from SEIU strengthens labor’s role with progressives in 1877, HERE 11, and UNITE. Each campaign Los Angeles’s Black communities. now seeks to talk to a sufficient number of voters in order to have sufficient targets to turn-out and 2004: Karen Bass, the executive director of the win the specified election with that target Community Coalition20 and a close labor ally number. Voter contacts are made by full-time from , is elected to the precinct walkers with help from weekend state assembly. With the support of the L.A. volunteer walkers. The walk numbers are heavily Federation and past political director and supplemented through full-time and volunteer current council member Martin Ludlow, the phone calls at the federation’s forty-station Bass campaign organized an impressive labor predictive dialing phone bank and SEIU Local and community coalition, attracting support 99’s fixed and mobile predictive dialing from unions, community organizations, and stations.22 progressives throughout Los Angeles. When Bass assumes office in January 2005 she will To pay for these efforts at the L.A. Federation, become the first African American woman in additional funds in excess of the per capita the California State Legislature in ten years. payments are raised from affiliates, often as

Building Power in Los Angeles -6 - much as three hundred thousand dollars to fund the labor to labor program and the independent Building an Immigrant-Labor Voting Block: the expenditure campaigns. And some affiliates are Organization of Los Angeles Workers (OLAW) now able to conduct their own independent expenditure campaigns focused, for example, on a Labor’s growing electoral success in L.A. is the separate radio, billboard, or open placement sign result of its systematic efforts to build a solid campaign as a part of Labor’s overall effort.23 grassroots political organization and a mobilized Furthermore, the City’s campaign finance law voting base. The centerpiece of this new political provides a one-for-one matching fund program on capacity rests in a labor-immigrant alliance forged the first $250 for council office, or $500 for at the door-to-door level. citywide office, up to a certain maximum, so that Labor’s candidates have often been able to raise Labor and the Democratic Party had questioned sufficient progressive and other dollars, allowing the value of electoral efforts in Latino Labor to focus their efforts directly into a highly communities prior to recent demographic shifts. targeted field and mail program. Registration work in Latino neighborhoods in the early 1980s produced cards that were less than Finally, key participants in the L.A. Federation 50 percent Democratic and over 30 percent supported a community based alliance in the Republican. After factoring in the differing development of a separate non-partisan turnout expectations between parties, Democrats constituency-based voter participation effort that questioned the efficacy of nonpartisan voter focuses on voter education and turn-out in registration drives among Latinos. However, underrepresented communities through walk, newer voters who got their citizenship during the phone, and/or mail efforts, be they immigrants, Republican attack in the 1990s have proven not Latinos, African-Americans or women. This only overwhelmingly Democratic but also strong non-partisan, non-profit corporation, the Voter supporters of labor's champions. As a result, the Improvement Program (VIP), was California State Assembly, which fell briefly into institutionalized through a periodic VIP dinner Republican hands toward the end of Speaker starting in 1997. These dinners now raise up to Willie Brown’s run, is now two votes short of a $1 million through a joint sponsorship of labor two-thirds Democratic majority in the forty- organizations, key corporate allies and member Senate and six votes short of a two- community groups throughout L.A.24 thirds Democratic majority in the eighty-member Assembly. At this point in history, there is a pro-labor majority in the , and The mobilization of this new alignment was among the state and federal elected delegations. sparked in early 2000 when labor led a coalition The L.A. County Board of Supervisors remains of immigrants’ rights organizations in an amnesty largely immune to Labor’s power because of the campaign that filled the L.A. Sports Arena with size of the huge districts, the way they have been sixteen thousand supporters inside and over four carved, the lack of term limits, and an early thousand more cheering outside. Miguel unsuccessful campaign against a current board Contreras, along with María Elena Durazo and member. Overall, the trend in Los Angeles is SEIU international vice president Eliseo Medina, toward labor’s increasing electoral influence as set about to harness this power politically. They the Latino population remains on the rise and set up the Organization of Los Angeles Workers labor continues to hone its relationships and its (OLAW) to develop a cadre of skilled union skills. members who would be paid their regular salary

Building Power in Los Angeles -7 - to work with the union on political campaigns “bet the farm” on Antonio Villaraigosa, the (these are known as lost-timers).25 In addition to former union president and now Speaker of the HERE Local 11, SEIU Local 1877 (Justice for Assembly, in his run for mayor.28 In this race, Janitors), and UNITE members, full-time walkers OLAW fielded one hundred and fifty full-time came initially from the Coalition for Humane loss-timers for the full six weeks before the Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA), election, and four hundred and fifty full-timers in Hermandad Mexicana Nacional, Clinica Romero the four days leading up to both the primary and (a Salvadoran immigrant solidarity organization), runoff.29 In addition, the County Federation and a number of Mexican and Guatemalan fielded a powerful labor-to-labor campaign and a hometown associations.26 separate independent expenditure campaign. Miguel Contreras reports that in one day in Los OLAW's first outing in 2000 focused sixty full- Angeles, on the Saturday before the run-off time walkers on two Republican-occupied election, two thousand seven hundred people congressional districts. In a parallel effort the walked precincts for Antonio Villaraigosa.30 UFW took on a third congressional race in L.A. Labor’s candidate placed first during the primary Operating outside traditionally acknowledged but was defeated by seven points in a racially Latino communities, OLAW targeted forty tinged general election by another Democrat, thousand Latinos in these previously Republican , the former city attorney. Despite districts for turnout, using candidate the ultimate loss, this effort invigorated Los comparisons, a pledge card, and a “stand up and Angeles, conveying the power and energy of the be counted” message to move these voters to the labor-Latino-progressive alliance. polls. Two of these three Republican seats became Democratic with the election of Adam In each race OLAW’s loss-timers have gained Schiff and Jane Harman in the November new skills. Tracy Zeluff, SEIU State Council’s election.27 Eliseo Medina explains OLAW’s field director, comments: work in an interview: They start with the task of delivering a Sometimes the details are important... We message, working as a team, being accountable, made up compromisos, commitment sheets, on being more assertive. They develop politically, NCR paper. The person at the door signed organizationally, personally, and they take and kept one copy, and the other copy went these skills back into the workplace for their into our data bank. That built in a lot of union. And the next campaign they are there accountability with our loss-timers because again, but this time as a team leader or possibly they had to show a signature, not just circle a running several teams. A number of OLAW code.... And the commitment was focused on full-timers are now getting ready to go to making voting a social act. The commitment Arizona and New , planning to run forms said, ‘Por la amnistia, por derechos, mi significant pieces of field operations in these familia vota 100 percento.’ [For amnesty, for battleground states. These are investments that rights, my family is voting 100 percent.]… We have paid off over multiple elections.31 tried to make everything a family act to magnify the work and make it resonate. In addition to its electoral prowess, OLAW also focuses on improving the public’s understanding Defeats as well as successes have built the of labor, especially in its base communities. As political clout of labor and its immigrant allies. In early as 1994 with the 100,000 supporters who 2001, in a bold move, the County Federation turned out at City Hall against Proposition 187,

Building Power in Los Angeles -8 - it became clear to labor that the ethnic media had permanent residents, many of them in key the capacity to be a partner on several fronts. states such as , New Mexico and Continuing to push on this front in developing Arizona, whoever is figuring out how to do this the precinct work, Eliseo Medina explains, “We work can make all the difference.”33 would often run paid media in the Spanish language press and use this to leverage Public Service Announcements (PSA’s) with our non- Concerns Along the Path: Shifting Racial Terrain partisan message. We would then routinely invite news anchors and reporters to walk with While building an axis of labor-immigrant political our teams and this would create a buzz, a power, L.A. leaders have had to negotiate the drumbeat for our efforts. In this way, labor complex terrain of Black-Brown relations. From became a partner with the community.”32 the Bradley years, labor was usually seen as a reliable ally to the Black community. African As a next step, OLAW and the County Americans ran the bus drivers union, the city Federation worked with Spanish-language employees union, the classified school Univision (channel 34) to conduct citizenship employees union, the letter carriers union, several fairs At the Lincoln Park event, every consulate other public sector locals, and added the in Los Angeles set up a booth and over 3,000 homecare workers union. But in the 1980’s other people attended to inquire about the citizenship once unionized industries began contracting out process as it relates to their country of origin. traditional African-American jobs in hotels and Channel 34 set up call-in shows with a toll-free building services and began filling these “new” number into the SEIU Local 99 phone bank. jobs with non-union Latino workers. With the Univision started conducting other call-in shows ongoing demographic shift and the constant battle with labor, marketing them “Treinta Cuatro en for available turf and resources, deep Black- Su Lado” [Channel 34 on Your Side]. They Brown tensions emerged in neighborhoods, the advertised and televised a question and answer schools, the streets, the jails and prisons, and the session with immigration attorneys, and the gangs, and these tensions spilled into every area union recruited fifty immigration attorneys to of life. They played out in battles against the staff SEIU Local 99’s call center. That session further contracting out of African American jobs led to over 200,000 phone requests. For a in the public sector to low-wage Latino question and answer session on L.A. schools, the subcontractors. And they played out in the union recruited school district and union siting of schools to accommodate the burgeoning representatives to field another barrage of Latino population.34 questions, and a session on community-police relations filled the phone bank with LAPD Labor’s electoral work in Los Angeles played out community affairs representatives. In this way, on this same stage. There were some who feared Eliseo Medina explains: that too close an identification between labor and Latinos would lead to the exclusion of other With the phone bank at Local 99, the TV has groups. Indeed, powerful political players were the SEIU logo behind all of the experts and not above exploiting that divide. Toward the end people start to understand that labor has a role of the 2001 mayoral campaign, Democratic on all these key issues… As a result of these candidate James Hahn released his smoking and other efforts, the new voters in L.A. are crack-pipe ad with grainy images of Antonio now almost as progressive as the Villaraigosa meant to solicit fear from the average voter base. With nine to ten million non-citizen voter, à la Willie Horton.35 This fear message

Building Power in Los Angeles -9 - played well to Hahn’s base among Anglo voters had fourteen Black state elected officials, now in the conservative west San Fernando Valley has six and none outside L.A. And the 2000 along with his African American base in South reapportionment of the 47th Assembly District Los Angeles.36 By contrast, Antonio turned this district from a majority African Villaraigosa’s relationships of trust across race American seat to a plurality Anglo seat. Yet, and ethnic lines were very deep. And his diverse because of the strength of the candidate, the allies argued the importance of a multiracial efforts of labor and its allies, this traditionally embrace of the coalition candidate who preceded Black seat remained a Black seat even though the coming Latino majority. The Villaraigosa loss three strong African-Americans faced off here and the elected Black leadership’s overwhelming with an Anglo candidate in the wings. In fact, support for James Hahn, partially because of his labor’s overwhelming support for Karen Bass father’s legendary largesse on the Board of helped keep the prominent Anglo, who may have Supervisors, caused some soul-searching at the polled a plurality, from throwing his hat in the County Federation. ring.

This led to the focus on Martin Ludlow's race in With the victories of Martin Ludlow and Karen 2003. Wit Ludlow, Labor was running its Bass, labor and its allies developed African strongest ally in the Black community. Ludlow American loss-timers with skills in the Black had worked previously at SEIU, Speaker community to add to the loss-timers who have Villaraigosa’s L.A. office, as the County honed their skills in turning out Latino voters. Federation’s COPE director during the And labor can also now operate with increased Villaraigosa campaign, and as chief of staff to legitimacy in South Los Angeles, without being African American Assembly Speaker Herb accused of acting as an invading army or a front Wesson. He presented the very face of coalition for the coming Latino majority.37 politics: an African American adopted into an Anglo family who had long relationships of trust Concerns Along the Path: Union Electoral with both Latino and African American leaders. Division Labor presented a powerful and united campaign in supporting his candidacy and the progressive The L.A. Federation has been able to build Black leadership in Los Angeles was empowered electoral power by developing a measure of unity through the Ludlow victory. among its affiliates over political endorsements. They have been able to muster the two-thirds In the very next local race, labor embraced a vote required to endorse a candidate in each of progressive African American ally in Karen Bass’ the races detailed above, despite regular race to succeed Speaker Herb Wesson in the 47th challenges to these endorsements from individual Assembly District. Karen Bass had built a truly affiliates. Some unions have at times gone their Black-Brown organization in South L.A. and had own way on specific endorsements, but because championed Villaraigosa’s mayoral effort there. of the power of the L.A. Federation’s collective As ethnic housing barriers have been broken program, the impact of this division of labor’s down by the vast influx of Latinos, large numbers resources has been minimized. The mayoral race of have left inner city in 2001 and the upcoming race in 2005 provide neighborhoods and spread throughout Southern some useful insights into this issue. California. As a result, traditional African American neighborhoods and legislative districts In 2001, almost all of the unions that represent have changed dramatically. California which once city workers endorsed city attorney James Hahn

Building Power in Los Angeles -10 - over Villaraigosa, but they did not have enough workplace. The County Federation's ability to votes to block a two-thirds endorsement for translate electoral success into leverage can be Villaraigosa. In 2005, the city unions that backed seen in both support for affiliate organizing and Hahn in 2001 will have many more allies within contract bargaining. labor in the next round as Hahn is now the incumbent. Since the last mayoral election, labor Leverage for Organizing Campaigns has developed strategic alliances with Mayor Hahn primarily through their support of his While the federation has not been directly campaign to stop the San Fernando Valley responsible for the organizing victories, they secession effort that threatened municipal have used their considerable political clout to financing. This initial alliance led to labor’s assist in the organizing campaigns. appointment by the mayor to key positions throughout Los Angeles.38 The Service Employees International Union has been the most dynamic organizing force in Los However, the mayor has angered the Black Angeles and throughout California. Two establishment by firing African American police organizing victories have had national impact: chief Bernard Parks. Parks easily won a council The campaign organized seat and is now running against his former boss thousands of largely immigrant workers in the with the strong support of Hahn’s previous early 1990s. The L.A. Federation recruited labor African American base. And Robert Hertzberg, and community support for many of the public the assembly speaker who followed Villaraigosa, demonstrations that galvanized the necessary is mounting a significant challenge to the mayor political support in favor of their recognition and likely to erode any base the mayor has left in the later contract efforts.39 In 1999, the County San Fernando Valley because of the mayor’s Federation’s closest ally in Sacramento, Speaker campaign against Valley secession. On August Antonio Villaraigosa, carried the legislation that 2nd,council member Antonio Villaraigosa created the public authority that allowed announced his intentions to run against the homecare workers to have an employer of record mayor. A minority of labor invokes the Bradley with which to bargain.40 This campaign brought campaign’s second successful run four years after 74,000 new workers into labor’s L.A. ranks. the initial loss as support for this second campaign. Others are either satisfied with In the last few years, SEIU has also scored incumbent Hahn, who has recently reached out to impressive organizing victories in the Los labor at every recent opportunity, or are Angeles health care industry with successes at convinced that he is likely to be reelected and do the two large chains, Catholic Healthcare West not want to be again outside the halls of power. and Tenet hospitals, and numerous independents. This complex situation, which in some ways Thousands of new health care workers have been results from the L.A. Federation’s prior successfully organized, and hospital-based successes, will be a challenge to their leadership private sector health care within the past few role in the next city election cycle. years has gone from 8 percent organized to over 50 percent organized. This has been the result of Cashing in on Political Work: The County a combination of strategic research, a top-notch Federation’s Role in Organizing and team of organizers, strong labor and community Bargaining alliances, and aggressive corporate campaigns The L.A. Federation’s successful efforts to build targeting the major employers in the industry. political power has translated into support in the

Building Power in Los Angeles -11 - The County Federation’s main contribution has current campaign to establish a million dollar been to get “labor’s warriors” up to Sacramento, defense fund (to be explored in the final section). and these legislators have carried many bills in support of organizing. These bills have included Leverage for Contract Campaigns prohibitions on the use of state funds to fight unions, legislation for state On the bargaining front, the County Federation contractors, employer mandates on healthcare, has developed a powerful reputation in elevating limits on contracting and outsourcing, and bills to the visibility of a local fight. In 2000, over expand the prevailing wage. Most recently, the 250,000 workers in Los Angeles were facing L.A. Federation’s past political director and contract expirations. The Los Angeles County current speaker, Fabian Nunez, played the key Federation of Labor skillfully coordinated role in negotiating labor’s right to organize at the membership mobilization, community outreach, Indian casinos as part of the compacts negotiated and media to aggressively support the contract by Governor Schwarzenegger between California battles. The campaigns helped to strengthen the and several of the tribes. In addition, the L.A. links between the existing unions and create a Federation has been able to help secure card stronger sense of class solidarity in the area. check agreements for several member unions. The first major campaign battle involved a three- From 1998 to 2001, the L.A. County Federation week strike of the janitors. The strike attracted of Labor hired an organizing director to try to huge public support. Cardinal Roger Mahoney support multi-union organizing campaigns and to presided over a public mass for thousands of work with affiliates to strengthen their organizing striking janitors. Members of the California and bargaining capacity. Ultimately, this legislature and the L.A. City Council jockeyed position was eliminated based on the difficulty with each other to join with janitors in civil the County Federation experienced in clearly disobedience actions shutting down several major defining their role in this arena. The County intersections during rush hour. Even the Federation continues to sponsor the work of the Republican mayor of Los Angeles publicly stated Los Angeles-Orange County Organizing that the janitors were not asking for enough Committee which is housed in their building. money at the bargaining table, much to the The LAOCOC holds monthly meetings with chagrin of his corporate backers. organizers, promotes best practices, and clears targets for organizing. At the height of the strike, thousands of janitors marched for fourteen miles from downtown Los The difficulty that the County Federation has Angeles to . Thousands of experienced in relation to organizing is not unlike supporters lined the streets, many with the problems faced by the AFL-CIO nationally. handmade signs of support. Many other office As a coalition of existing unions, they do not workers rushed into the crowd to spontaneously have their own independent membership base or contribute to the striking workers. The bright red their own organizing targets. They can use their T-shirts worn by janitors became so publicly position and moral authority to encourage unions identified with the strike, that public bus drivers to organize and bargain effectively, but were giving free rides to any of the striking ultimately, whether unions organize and prepare workers wearing a janitors’ T-shirt. At the sufficiently for their work actions is not really up culmination of the three-week strike, the janitors to them. The experiences in this arena have led won a 26 percent wage increase and full family the County Federation of Labor to pursue their

Building Power in Los Angeles -12 - medical coverage. This strike has deservedly And then came the devastating strike and lockout been studied as a model of union preparation.41 of 70,000 grocery workers at Vons (Safeway), Albertsons, and Ralphs (Kroger) all across The janitor’s strike set the pace for subsequent Southern California. The federation loaned five negotiations involving the bus drivers. The L.A. staff members to the UFCW during the course of Federation’s profile was even higher while it was the action. But the strike and lockout were supporting the United Transportation Union. emotionally draining on the staff who were Martin Ludlow, the L.A. Federation’s political dealing with the personal tragedies of union director was assigned to build support amongst members whose strike fund benefits kept being elected officials and church leaders. The L.A. reduced. The UFCW’s lack of preparation for Federation’s overall efforts on the coalition and the titanic battle that ensued has become well media fronts helped build strong public support understood. Less understood is the consensus- for their contract demands. And labor’s based decision-making of seven separate locals legitimacy in the community with bus users and attempting to take on national companies at only their advocates strengthened the bus drivers’ a regional level. As hard as they worked, the die position. It was the L.A. Federation that seemed already cast when the L.A. Federation ultimately brought Jesse Jackson to Los Angeles became involved in this strike and lockout and and positioned Jackson as the mediator. And it they indicate that they have learned volumes was Jesse Jackson who brokered the high stakes from their solidarity efforts in support of this dispute. work action.

Labor’s success with the janitors and the bus The County Federation's Coalition drivers worked to the advantage of the teachers, Building screen actors, and L.A. County workers later that year in helping to settle their disputes. The different campaigns and issues have provided the impetus for several coalition Over the past year, the County Federation of relationships worthy of mention. In the electoral Labor has played a key role in supporting three arena, a number of community organizations worker actions. Members of the ILWU were participate in the field campaigns that are based locked out of their jobs by the Pacific Maritime at the County Federation of Labor, most notably Association, and the L.A. Federation sponsored Hermandad Mexicana Nacional and ACORN. successful labor solidarity efforts at the port on Each electoral effort pulls together a different several occasions. When the Metropolitan electoral coalition depending on the district and Transit Authority’s bus mechanics went out on the related issues, including the work of OLAW strike in October 2003, labor’s recently elected and its coalition partners. champions, Antonio Villaraigosa and Martin Ludlow, played the key front roles in moving the The L.A. electoral arena cannot be addressed mediation proposal once Mayor Hahn appointed without some mention of the work of AGENDA them to the board of the Metropolitan Transit (Action for Grassroots Empowerment and Authority and they won a related legal case. And Neighborhood Development Alternatives), its Miguel Contreras played the key background role coalition arm the Metropolitan Alliance, and their in working with the MTA unions to settle this key organizer Anthony Thigpenn. AGENDA strike after five long weeks. has teamed up in the past three years with the Community Coalition, SEIU Local 1877 (Justice for Janitors), SEIU Local 434B (Home Health Care) and SEIU Local 99 (Classified School Building Power in Los Angeles -13 - Employees) to build a 501(c )(4) labor- Immigrant Rights community field effort in South Los Angeles called ALLERT (Alliance of Local Leaders for The County Federation of Labor has been Education, Registration, and Turn-out). instrumental in helping to change the national policy of the AFL-CIO with regard to Intentionally developing Black/Brown precinct immigration as well as advancing policy teams in the changing Black community, initiatives in California that have impacted Anthony Thigpenn’s work has been instrumental immigrants. in spinning off independent expenditure efforts for candidates Martin Ludlow and Karen Bass. The AFL-CIO change in policy came about in And while independent expenditure campaigns part as a result of a new wave of immigrant cannot coordinate with candidate campaigns, worker organizing in the 1990s, including the they can do some coordination with each other, Justice for Janitors campaign in Los Angeles. and the close working relationship between the The janitors’ campaign successfully unionized County Federation of Labor, AGENDA, the thousands of Latino immigrant workers and Community Coalition, and ALLERT has been captured the spirit and imagination of millions highly productive. As a result, ALLERT has throughout the country. The campaign has begun to play the role in the traditionally generated international interest, in part because of African-American community that OLAW Ken Loach’s film, Bread and Roses. continues to play in Latino communities. Other Los Angeles unions have won impressive In supporting the work of the constituency gains in organizing immigrant workers, including groups, the County Federation has turned the the Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees annual MLK breakfast into a fundraiser for the Union (HERE); the Union of Needletrade, A. Phillip Randolph Institute (APRI), the Asian Industrial and Textile Employees (UNITE); the Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), the International Association of Machinists (IAM); Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW), SEIU’s Homecare local, and numerous building Labor Committee for Latin American trades unions, in particular, the Laborers and the Advancement (LCLAA), the Jewish Labor Painters. Committee (JLC), and Pride at Work (the gay and lesbian constituency group of the AFL-CIO). Prior to 2000, the activities of unions in Los The constituency groups meet together monthly Angeles were putting them increasingly at odds just before the federation’s delegates meeting.42 with the national policy of the AFL-CIO that continued to oppose the granting of legal status The County Federation’s Role in Labor to undocumented workers and supported Policy Debates employer sanctions, including civil criminal penalties for hiring the undocumented. Unions in With the increased political power of the County Los Angeles argued that the AFL-CIO could not Federation of Labor has also been increased continue to encourage immigrant workers to join activism on the public policy front. There are their ranks while, at the same time, upholding two major public policy areas where the policies opposed to immigrant workers’ federation has had a particularly successful interests. This conflict came to a head at the impact: on immigration and immigrant workers 1999 AFL-CIO convention in Los Angeles. and on economic justice and the living wage. Several unions, most notably the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), HERE,

Building Power in Los Angeles -14 - UNITE, the United Farm Workers of America Economic Development and the Work of (UFW), and California-based central labor the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) councils took the lead in advancing a resolution from the convention floor to change the AFL- While a number of central labor councils have CIO’s policy regarding immigrant workers. spun off their own non-profit entities that work While no consensus was reached at the on economic justice and economic development, convention, John Sweeney appointed a LAANE largely occupies that turf in Los committee to review the matter, chaired by John Angeles. It is thus important to understand Wilhelm, president of HERE. By the February LAANE’s role and their relationship with the 2000 executive committee meeting, the AFL-CIO L.A. Federation adopted a new platform in defense of immigrant rights. This resulted in a dramatic shift in the In 1993 HERE Local 11 launched LAANE as a national debate on immigration reform and once nonprofit advocate for workers’ interests in the again brought the issues of legalization and the public policy arena. With its ability to attract repeal of employer sanctions to the forefront. foundation funding LAANE today supports roughly twenty staff. LAANE's work is three In the summer of 2000, the AFL-CIO held a pronged: research, policy development and series of "Town Hall" meetings to announce their campaigns, and coalition work. Through all change in immigration policy and to reach out to three, LAANE works to refocus public debates immigrant workers to share their stories. The about economic development on issues of most impressive of these meetings, discussed economic justice and a worker's right to organize. earlier, was held in Los Angeles where 20,000 Pursuing this work, involves LAANE is a wealth immigrant workers turned out at the downtown of on-the-ground organizing. Sports Arena for a powerful immigrant rights rally that, in a historic turnaround, was led by the The Value of Research at LAANE American labor movement. Research has proven critical to raise public In California, unions were major supporters of awareness of the bankruptcy of current economic legislation introduced by State Senator Gilbert development policy and to identify areas for Cedillo, a former union leader, providing drivers’ grassroots and policy action. In 2000, LAANE licenses for undocumented immigrants. Although released a report detailing the magnitude of social passed into law and signed by Governor Gray and economic problems produced by the massive Davis, this law was subsequently overturned growth of low-wage jobs. This report built on with the election of Republican Governor Arnold earlier studies that focused light on the two major Schwarzenegger. Labor continues to play a local economic development programs: the city’s central role in negotiating a compromise with the Commercial Redevelopment Agency and the Schwarzenegger administration. Also on the Mayor’s Los Angeles Business Team. With immigrant rights front, the national chairperson access to millions of dollars in public subsidies for the Immigrant Workers Freedom Ride, María and other incentive mechanisms, these two Elena Durazo, is based in Los Angeles, and Los programs helped drive development in the city. Angeles became an organizing center for the Researchers found that job quality was not a October 2003 national effort. criteria being used in either program. Public efforts were not targeted specifically toward under-served communities. Indeed, the city had no coherent strategy targeting key industry

Building Power in Los Angeles -15 - sectors, but rather focused its energy on lease land from the city, those requiring city attracting individual firms. The reports operating permits, or those receiving city recommended far less emphasis on retail and financial assistance as well as the already much greater attention to smaller projects. The established coverage of contractors. More recommendations also looked toward living wage recently, LAANE coordinated with the County policies, labor peace compacts, greater attention Federation to secure a county living wage to job creation and job quality, and far more ordinance and a Pasadena living wage law. Both public accountability. Together, these three LAANE and the L.A. Federation support an reports articulated an organizing agenda for ongoing living wage battle in Santo Monica. energizing local progressive politics. LAANE’s work on the L.A. living wage has Policy Action: Retention and Living Wage emerged as a model for aggressive enforcement. LAANE actively monitors the city's contracting Starting in 1993 LAANE led a successful and economic development activity in order to campaign to pass the country's first worker actively intervene in the process. The living retention ordinance that required existing workers wage coalition pushed the city council to take to be hired during a change of contractors. city enforcement efforts out of the Amongst others, the ordinance helped save the unsympathetic and ineffective hands of the office jobs of hundreds of airport employees. This charged with implementing the living wage law worker retention ordinance played a key role in and placing authority into a new staff established supporting HERE and SEIU organizing efforts at for that purpose. LAANE has been the LAX, since key committee members could not be implementation arm of a city-sponsored program easily discarded with a change of contractors. to train covered workers on their rights under the living wage ordinance. In 1997 LAANE spearheaded the effort to enact Los Angeles's living wage law. The Los Angeles This living wage work has helped produce Living Wage campaign had a powerful impact on leverage to support workers' right to organize. the local political scene. An impressive coalition At LAX, the living wage coalition has intervened of labor unions, religious groups, community in the process by which the airport grants food organizations, and economic justice advocates concessions, supporting employers who are joined together and launched a spirited campaign. committed to respecting their workers right to Rallies and demonstrations were held in the City freely decide whether or not to join a union. Hall chambers. During one holiday season They have also obtained amendments to the action, actor David Clennon came dressed as the original living wage law to make clear that the ghost of Christmas past complete with chains airlines themselves are covered and to provide and moneyboxes, deriding greedy employers for strong protections and employer sanctions in refusing to pay their workers a living wage. workplaces where workers are harassed for discussing their rights under the living wage The living wage policy that was adopted by the ordinance. The retention law protects union and city council was the first to include a provision non-union workers from losing their job if a for health benefits and has became a national contract changes hand. model. It was also the first piece of living wage legislation to bar retaliation by employers against When the living wage law was passed 30,000 out their workers. The ordinance also pioneered of the 50,000 airport worker were not in a union. living wage coverage that applied to those that Since this time HERE has gone from representing

Building Power in Los Angeles -16 - roughly one out of five airport workers in its bargaining to four out of five. SEIU has moved In attempting to institutionalize a community from representing one in ten workers within their benefits process, LAANE has pushed for the jurisdiction to representing more than half. requirement of a social impact report that details HERE has used the living wage coalition's the social impact of certain developments. This support to win a neutrality agreement and effort has required dialogue with some of the subsequent union recognition at the new site of building trades and the mayor’s office, both of the Academy Awards in . SEIU also which initially opposed such reforms. This effort won union jobs for janitors using the living wage seeks to lay the framework for subsequent law and coalition support. community benefits negotiations. The long-term goal is to institutionalize such practices so that Policy Action: Community Benefits Agreements an assessment of the community impact is a normal city action and so that large developers LAANE has also pioneered work to develop are required in certain instances to sign a community and labor involvement in the community benefits agreement as part of the economic development process through the normal public approval process. strategy of community benefits agreements. These community benefits agreements take the LAANE’s Role in Building Coalition Capacity form of legally binding documents that are included as part of the formal economic On the religious front, the County Federation of development agreement between local Labor has developed a close working relationship government and the developer. with Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). This organization was By 2002, LAANE's Accountable Development developed by LAANE in pressing their living Project had helped coalitions secure private and wage campaign and continues to be based at legally binding agreements with five major LAANE’s main office. CLUE has been deeply entertainment, housing & retail, and industrial involved in supporting Justice for Janitors, the development projects. The first breakthrough grocery workers, and the battle shaping up agreement, with the massive Staples between HERE and the region’s hotel industry. development, was won in coalition with SAJE CLUE has also directly aided area unions. For (Strategic Actions for a Just Economy) and set example, when the Westside Hotels balked at a the framework for future work. All such large first contract with the HERE to gradually raise scale development projects benefit from millions housekeepers’ wages from $8.15 to $11.05 an of dollars of public funds. Community benefits hour, CLUE dispatched small teams in full agreements commits the developer to such ministerial garb to deliver brief sermons on provisions as 70-75% living wage jobs at the workplace fairness while ordering coffee at business which will operate in the developments, several hotel dining rooms. On April 8, 1998, an affordable housing and childcare centers, a youth interfaith procession of sixty ministers, priests, center, local hiring, a neighborhood improvement and rabbis marched through Beverly Hills to fund, and card check recognition and employer deposit bitter herbs outside the Rodeo Summit neutrality during union organizing. In one case, Hotel, which still had not signed the HERE the developer approached LAANE because agreement, and offer milk and honey to the two community support can help make a proposed which had. Two months later the Summit signed. development project's journey through the public CLUE has organized similar religious support for approval process much easier. a campaign against a union-busting hotel in Santa

Building Power in Los Angeles -17 - Monica, an organizing drive at St. Francis labor’s mayoral candidate and in order to add Hospital, and protests over the University of labor’s muscle to the defeat of the Valley Southern California’s decisions to contract out secession effort -- the L.A. Federation’s first work to low-wage employers. In addition to request was to have the mayor appoint CLUE, the County Federation has a strong LAANE’s executive director, Madeline Janis- working relationship with the Catholic Aparicio, to the powerful Community Archdiocese, holding an annual workers’ mass on Redevelopment Agency. Aparicio now occupies Labor Day at Cardinal Mahoney’s new cathedral. one of labor’s two seats on the CRA. And on the Sunday before Labor Day, the County Federation continues to build their Labor A recent collaboration between LAANE and the in the Pulpit program, primarily in South Los County Federation demonstrated how economic Angeles. development and electoral work combine in support of union causes when the two led an LAANE also developed Santa Monicans for effort to successfully defeat Wal-Mart’s Responsible Tourism (SMART) as a grassroots multimillion dollar effort to site a supercenter in member organization that has pushed living wage Los Angeles’s inner city community of and economic justice issues. SMART developed Inglewood. LAANE did all the early work in a zone-based living law that would have required Inglewood with the leadership of Clergy and all employers within the city's lucrative coastal Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE). The zone to pay a living wage. The ritzy-tourist church-based organizing framed the coalition industry has benefited enormously from the work and LAANE’s research effort framed the public investment provided within the zone only issues. The UFCW and the L.A. Federation had to generate an exploding low-wage workforce. helped bring pro-labor council members onto the To head off the measure an alliance of wealthy Inglewood City Council so that Wal-Mart was hotel and restaurant owners placed a bogus forced to bypass the council through an initiative "living wage" law on the ballot that would have in order to enter the jurisdiction. covered few workers and prohibited the city from passing any further living wage statutes. With the grocery strike and lockout tying the LAANE, SMART, and the County Federation UFCW’s hands both politically and financially in helped defeat this sham proposal and won city the months leading up to the Inglewood election, council passage of their authentic living wage law. the L.A. Federation engineered the placement of Unfortunately, the opposition forced the new the region’s largest UFCW support march and law onto the ballot. In November 2002, a scare rally through the streets of Inglewood. This very campaign convinced a majority of voters to public event with over ten thousand supporters rescind the law. Despite this setback, SMART's highlighted the claim by the grocery chains that organizing has continued to support the they were forced to dramatically cut the wages unionization of several of these coastal hotels. and benefits of grocery workers because of the entry of forty Wal-Marts into the California Relationship Between LAANE and the Los market. And when the Walmart initiative was Angeles County Labor Federation voted on one month later in April 2004, the treatment of the grocery workers was fresh on In many ways, LAANE operates in the political everyone’s mind. Compared to the two million space that has been created by the L.A. County dollars spent by Wal-Mart in support of their Federation of Labor. When Mayor Hahn sought initiative and the additional millions spent on détente with labor -- after his campaign against advertising images of happy workers into the

Building Power in Los Angeles -18 - L.A. market, the L.A. Federation spent less than hundred members, to encourage their active $150,000 in the final three weeks of the campaign participation in federation activities, and to on a highly targeted walk and phone operation assure that their delegates are assigned and attend and managed to defeat the Wal-Mart measure a thousand-member delegates’ convention to with a 61 percent no vote. LAANE’s early and chart the path forward. The goal of these constant work on this campaign was essential in mobilization efforts is to strengthen the overall building the local campaign and cannot be participation of the County Federation unions overstated, while the L.A. Federation’s role was and to in turn strengthen the capacity of the also necessary to the result.43 federation to do more. The plan to be laid out at the General Assembly is three-fold: one electoral Political columnist Harold Meyerson recently and two programmatic. observed, On the electoral front, the Federation needs to The political clout LAANE brings to the table expand its capacity because, due to term limits, is not really its own. It belongs chiefly to the there will be sixteen open senate and assembly L.A. County Federation of Labor, whose seats in its jurisdiction in 2006. The immediate election-day batting average is so high that local focus is in defending a contested Senate seat that elected officials flout its agenda—which very has been targeted by new Governor Arnold much includes LAANE’s agenda—on virtual Schwarzenegger. The long-term plan is to penalty of political death. It would be an develop more “labor warriors” for Sacramento overstatement to say that the Fed provides the and the Los Angeles City Council. Plans are just muscle and LAANE the brain for working-class now being developed by the L.A. Federation, Los Angeles—Fed leader Miguel Contreras is focused on strengthening its regional COPE an innovative strategist and Janis-Aparicio is committees in the San Fernando Valley, the San no mean organizer—but it wouldn’t be wrong Gabriel Valley, and the Harbor. exactly, either. There are also two programmatic plans that are A trip through the city’s corridors of power being discussed. The first would be to set up a $1 these days provides a clear indication of the million campaign defense fund to assist unions in effect LAANE has had over the past decade. organizing and contract campaigns. This would “The debate is different now,” says Janis- not be a strike fund, but would instead provide Aparicio. “Decision-makers talk about poverty resources that would enable the L.A. Federation and the lack of affordable housing, in City to intervene more aggressively in support of Council meetings, at commissions, even at the significant union campaigns. It will thus give the Chamber of Commerce.” In a city of chutes, federation more leverage to help these unions LAANE has assembled some ladders.44 plan ahead and conduct their campaigns in ways that will build public understanding and support. Future Ambitions for the L.A. Federation As Miguel Contreras says, “None of us are independent. If one union loses its battle over The L.A. County Federation of Labor is health care benefits, other unions will definitely currently embarking on a new campaign to hold suffer. When another union is forced to accept a the first county-wide delegates’ convention on two-tier system, it is that much harder for the September 30, 2004. To achieve this goal, the rest of labor.”45 L.A. Federation will “house visit” each of the 327 affiliates of the federation with over one

Building Power in Los Angeles -19 - The second programmatic plan is to launch a down or follow the defense dollars that still remained away from public policy campaign that will help promote Southern California. labor’s social change agenda on a larger scale. 4 A review of California Employment Development Department data The current proposal is to eliminate fees for Los over time shows Los Angeles County’s average manufacturing employment peaked in 1979 at 924,900 jobs, but has dropped to Angeles city residents for the first year of 500,000 in 2003. This material is documented by Goetz Wolff in his community college, to be paid by a local forthcoming article, Manufacturing Still Matters in Los Angeles: employer tax or fee. The two-year community Analysis of a Neglected Sector, UCLA Urban Planning. 5 Los Angeles Almanac, based on the 2000 U.S. Census college system serves the working class of Los 6 The U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services estimates Angeles, and the colleges are highly unionized 2.6+ million undocumented immigrants statewide institutions, including faculty and staff. In 7 Phone interview with Elinor Glenn, July 16, 2004. 8 Interview with Bill Robertson, July 22, 2004. addition, the first and second years of higher 9 “Labor Federation’s Robertson to Retire.” Los Angeles Times, June education are decisive in determining the long- 17, 1993, B3. term earning power of working people. The 10 Tax increment financing is available in California in designated redevelopment zones, allowing the agency to amass the difference hope is that this plan will help to build a far- between the old property tax contribution and the amount that would reaching labor and community alliance that also have been assessed under the new appraisal and to use those monies to connects with youth to advance a change agenda fund future development. 11 Interview with Rick Icaza, June 29, 2004. that serves the working people of Los Angeles. 12 Silverstein, Stuart 1996. L.A. Labor Federation Vote Divides Along Ethnic Lines, Los Angeles Times, April 17, D1. The L.A. County Federation of Labor has made 13 Ruth Milkman and Kent Wong. 2001. Interview with Miguel Contreras, ILE Occasional Paper No. 5, September, p. 6. huge strides in the last ten years. They have 14 Interview with Kelly Candaele, July 18, 2004, Labor to labor moved from an organization that represented the campaigns involve union members talking to other union members status quo, old guard union leadership, to one which can be done with union dues money, while labor to neighbor campaigns require the use of COPE dollars. that aggressively embraces a social action agenda. 15 The Campaign for Participation and Democracy registered over a They have revitalized the political scene; elected quarter of a million voters in California and built a precinct leader crucial progressive leaders, often from their own system in thousands of precincts across the state. 16 Phone interview with Kelly Candaele, quoting other consultants’ ranks, to local, state, and national office; forged comments, July 18, 2004. new labor and community alliances; impacted 17 The final vote tally gave Cedillo 43.75 percent of the vote to local and statewide public policy through their Castro’s 22.12 percent. 18 Proposition 226 was defeated with a 60 percent no vote. own power and the work of their allies; and 19 Gray Davis received 58 percent of the vote while Republican Dan actually expanded their per capita membership. Lungren received 38 percent. 20 In the midst of a national decline in labor’s power The Community Coalition for Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment started as a progressive effort to address the impact of drugs and influence, the Los Angeles County and alcohol in South L.A. It has branched out to deal with liquor Federation of Labor indeed provides a degree of stores, the education gap, foster care, youth programs, and other issues. Its activists were key supporters of the Villaraigosa mayoral hope for working people. campaign in South L.A. The organization later helped develop a key c(4) labor-community partnership which has worked on initiative 1 U.S. Census Bureau. 2002. “California Quick Facts: Los Angeles battles with labor and other partners. County, California” 21 In April 2004, Inglewood voted against Wal-Mart’s arrival, 61 2 Bluestone, Barry and Bennett Harrison 1982. The percent to 39 percent. Deindustrialization o f America: Plant Closings, Community 22 In this system, computers generate all phone calls and then place the Abandonment, and the Dismantling of Basic Industry,” New York: Basicdetails of a voter and a general script from which to work on a computer Books. screen in front of a caller. The predictive system can weed out 3 With California’s ex-governor, Ronald Reagan, in the White House,answering machines, busy signals, and not homes and restrict down Los Angeles received over $20 billion each year in defense-related time between calls to an average of ten seconds, greatly increasing prime contracts. The end of the Cold War coincided with the rise of both productivity and the callers’ enjoyment of the experience. The presidents from and Arkansas and the control of Congress by strategic advantage that came from the County Federation’s predictive Republicans from Texas and the South. Many of these prime contractsdialing phone stations cannot be overstated. left Southern California which had become Democratic turf. Aerospace23 IBEW Locals 11 and 18 have conducted significant efforts in these companies and dependent electronics subcontractors had to either closeareas. 24 Interview with County Fed President Rick Icaza, June 29, 2004.

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25 The inclusion of a loss-time provision in union contracts, which 43 LAANE organizers have carefully clarified the unique circumstances allows the union to buy out the time of workers who are on leave fromthat led to the defeat of Wal-Mart, which talks of Wal-Mart their job to work with their union, has been another cornerstone in theoverreaching and placing an initiative on the ballot that avoids all city development of labor’s political power. input in their development within the city. They explain that Wal- 26 Phone Interview with Tracy Zeluff, July 24, 2004. Mart is unlikely to a similar mistake in the future. 27 Interview with Eliseo Medina, June 30, 2004, 44 Harold Meyerson, 2003. “Ladders of Hope: How the Living-Wage 28 A description employed by Miguel Contreras in the Los Angeles Coalition is Remaking L.A.,” L.A. Weekly, August 29. Times in describing the County Federation’s commitment to the 45 Interview with Miguel Contreras, August 2, 2004. Villaraigosa campaign. 29 Phone interview with Tracy Zeluff, July 24, 2004. 30 Ruth Milkman and Kent Wong. 2001. Interview with Miguel Contreras, ILE Occasional Paper No. 5, September, p. 13. 31 Phone interview with Tracy Zeluff, July 24, 2004. 32 Interview with Eliseo Medina, June 30, 2004. 33 Interview with Eliseo Medina, June 30, 2004. 34 Los Angeles needs to site and build over one hundred new schools focused especially in the increasingly dense central city. With manufacturing and other commercial space hopelessly polluted, the Los Angeles Unified School District has increasingly turned to residential zones. One prominent Black politician was quoted as making the following inflammatory yet true statement in attempting to stop the eminent domaining of several Black owned homes, “They are tearing down African American homes to build schools for Latinos.” 35 This ad made reference to a letter that Antonio Villaraigosa sent on behalf of Carlos Vignali, an individual convicted for his role in a drug conspiracy, but it did not mention the panoply of other electeds who sent similar letters. For example, the Villaraigosa letter was much softer than the one sent by Los Angeles Archbishop Roger Mahoney. Harold Meyerson quotes Father Greg Boyle in the week before the election, “You look at the Vignali letter. That was a mistake. You look at the Hahn ad and say, That was morally reprehensible.” (www.ncl.org/cs/conversations/documents/vargas_bad_feelings.html) 36 James Hahn benefited from a peculiar coalition between conservative white voters, who found it difficult to vote for a Latino, and African American voters who loved James Hahn’s father, perennial county supervisor Kenny Hahn, who represented South Los Angeles well and was the only elected leader to meet Martin Luther King Jr. at the airport when he first came to Los Angeles. 37 The L.A. County Federation has worked hard to develop African American leadership throughout its ranks. Charles Lester is the Fed’s political director and Steve Neal who is in charge of the Labor Community Services based at the Fed, has taken several leaves to run federation campaigns. Other African American staffers have also been key to the Fed’s successes. 38 For example, Miguel Contreras was appointed to the Airport Commission and ally Madeline Janis-Aparicio was appointed to the Community Redevelopment Agency soon after the successful conclusion of that campaign. 39 Roger Waldinger, et.al. 1998, “Helots No More: A Case Study of the Justice for Janitors Campaign in Los Angeles,” Organizing to Win, Cornell Univesity Press, pp. 102-119. 40 Phone interview with Antonio Villaraigosa, August 9, 2004. 41 Stephanie Arellano, “Year 2000 Justice for Janitors Campaign: Reflections of a ,” 2002. Teaching for Change, UCLA Center for Labor Research and Education, George Meany Center for Labor Studies. 42 The L.A. Federation also connects to religious groups in ways that will be described later in the discussion of LAANE’s work.

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